MPs this morning condemned ministers for imposing a real term austerity cut of more than a third of the budget on the courts in a damning report on the state of our criminal justice system. The Public Accounts Committee blamed poor performance on...

The number of Crown Court cases being dropped reached a five-year high in 2014-15, new figures reveal. The Crown Prosecution Service initiated thousands of prosecutions that ended after Crown Court judges found that there was insufficient...

Family law practitioners, judges, and legal commentators have reacted with dismay at the latest hike in divorce court fees. From today, fees will rise by 34% from £410 to £550. The move follows a Ministry of Justice consultation last summer. This...

On Tuesday, a family court judge ruled that 13 month old Poppi Worthington had been sexually assaulted by her father shortly before her death in 2012. Following the family court judgment, the former Liberal Democrat justice minister Sir Simon...

Monday night’s Panorama investigation into mistreatment at a G4S-run youth offenders’ unit in Rochester has led to four arrests and calls for G4S to lose all its youth detention centre contracts. The BBC’s undercover investigation at Medway...

Two-thirds of all people Tasered by the police in England and Wales between 2010 and 2014 were identified as mentally ill. The figures were made available by the Home Office following a Freedom of Information Act request by www.thejusticegap.com...

The Chancellor of the Exchequer today set out the Ministry of Justice’s budget for the next parliament, including major ‘efficiency savings’ and reforms to the prison system. Commentators have expressed concern that the reforms will harm women...

MPs called on the government to scrap Chris Grayling’s controversial criminal courts charge as soon as possible. A report published today by the House of Commons’ Justice Committee, attacked the charge as ‘grossly disproportionate to the means of...

Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation, has called for the investigatory powers bill to be fast-tracked through Parliament in order to protect London from terrorist attacks. In an article for the Daily Mail...

In a major victory for campaigners, the Supreme Court has refused the government permission to appeal a Court of Appeal decision that found Detained Fast Track (DFT) to be unlawfully unfair to asylum seekers. The decision ends government hopes of...

A review of court custody in England and Wales by HM Inspectorate of Prisons found conditions to be a ‘threat to the health’ of detainees and staff. The review, conducted between 2012 and 2014 looking at 97 court houses with custody facilities...

A report by the Rape Monitoring Group, published by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary, reveals a dramatic fall in the percentage of reported rapes that result in charges in England and Wales. The report also shows increases in the total number of...